Jonathan A. Knee had a ringside seat during the go-go, boom-and-bust decade and into the 21st century, at the two most prestigious investment banks on Wall Street--Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. In this candid and irreverent insider's account of an industry in free fall, Knee captures an exhilarating era of fabulous deal-making in a free-wheeling Internet economy--and the catastrophe that followed when the bubble burst. Populated with power players, back stabbers, celebrity bankers, and godzillionaires, here is a vivid account of the dramatic upheaval that took place in investment banking. Indeed, Knee entered an industry that was typified by the motto "first-class business in a first-class way" and saw it transformed in a decade to a free-for-all typified by the acronym IBG, YBG ("I'll be gone, you'll be gone"). Increasingly mercenary bankers signed off on weak deals, knowing they would leave them in the rear-view mirror. Once, investment bankers prospered largely on their success in serving the client, preserving the firm, and protecting the public interest. Now, in the "financial supermarket" era, bankers felt not only that each day might be their last, but that their worth was tied exclusively to how much revenue they generated for the firm on that day--regardless of the source. Today, most young executives feel no loyalty to their firms, and among their clients, Knee finds an unprecedented but understandable level of cynicism and distrust of investment banks. Brimming with insight into what investment bankers actually do, and told with biting humor and unflinching honesty, The Accidental Investment Banker offers a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of the most powerful companies on Wall Street.

1996年，也就是使東南亞經濟大逆轉的亞洲金融危機爆發前一年，《富比士》雜誌（Forbes）在其公布全球年度最富有個人排行榜上，東南亞地區商業鉅亨在排行榜前二十五名中佔了八位，在前五十名中則佔了十三位。對整個地區所有經濟產出加起來都無法超過一個全球五百強私營企業的東南亞而言，其首富人數卻在全世界最富有的二十五人中佔了超過三分之一。這些人就是亞洲教父的先鋒，每位名下都有超過四十億美元的資產，其中包括了李嘉誠、郭鶴年（Robert Kwok）、謝國民（Dhanin Chearavanont）、林紹良（Liem Sioe Liong）、鄭周敏（Tan Yu）、郭令明（Kwek Leng Beng），以及一群擁有十億到三十億美元資產的商業鉅亨。 整個香港和東南亞的經濟實際上只由四十到五十個家族所主導。這些家族的經營事業跨足銀行業、地產業、船運業、糖業、博弈業到伐木業。巔峰時期，全世界最富有的二十五個家族中，來自東南亞的家族就佔了八個。 對比這些富商所生存的國家而言，這些極為有錢的鉅商們似乎形成了一個令人尷尬的強烈對比。 本書帶大家一覽亞洲商業大亨們的世界。包括香港首富李嘉誠；賭場大亨、也是十七名子女的父親何鴻燊；馬來西亞雲頂高原遊樂區創始人林梧桐；印尼的幾位銀行家，以及由工友變成菲律賓菸業大亨的陳永裁。 透過這些神祕且迷人的大亨生活背後，作者周博深入探討這個擁有五億人口區域當中的經濟和政治問題，帶領讀者了解巨亨們何以對當地經濟造成影響，如何度過亞洲金融危機，同時揭露隱藏在權力、與巨大財富背後的種種驚人事實。

The authors use copious amounts of data ... to make the compelling case that any well-informed person should have seen the Great Recession coming. The essence of their book is that while financial crises come in different varieties, they are not mysteriously born of undersea earthquakes, but frequently occurring events that can be spotted and even controlled if politicians and regulators know what to look for. -- Devin Leonard New York Times Reinhart and Rogoff have compiled an impressive database, which covers eight centuries of government debt defaults from around the world. They have also collected statistics on inflation rates from every country where information is available and on banking crises and international capital flows over the past couple of centuries. This lengthy historical study gives what they call a 'panoramic view' of the unending cycle of boom and bust, showing how claims that 'this time is different' are invariably proven wrong... This Time Is Different doesn't simply explain what went wrong in our most recent crisis. This book also provides a roadmap of how things are likely to pan out in the years to come... This Time Is Different is an important addition to the literature of financial history. -- Edward Chancellor Wall Street Journal Professor Rogoff and his longtime collaborator Carmen Reinhart ... know more about the history of financial crises than anyone alive. The pair have just published their broad survey of financial crises, This Time is Different. In an era when most 'analysts' rely on maybe 30 or 40 years' worth of financial history--and then only that of the U.S.--the authors' knowledge of financial crises and government bond defaults going back to the Spanish empire and before offers a richer perspective. -- Brett Arends Wall Street Journal [E]ssential reading ... both for its originality and for the sobering patterns of financial behaviour it reveals. Economist The four most dangerous words in finance are 'this time is different.' Thanks to this masterpiece by Carmen Reinhart at the University of Maryland and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard, no one can doubt this again... The authors have put an immense amount of work into collecting the data financial institutions needed if they were to have any chance of making quantitative risk management work. -- Martin Wolf Financial Times Everyone working on economic policy should own This Time is Different and open it for a bracing blast of sobriety when things seem to be going well. -- Greg Ip Washington Post [A] fine new history of financial debacles. -- Daniel Gross Newsweek Wouldn't it be nice to have $1,000 for every time a pundit proclaims an era of endless prosperity, consigning booms and busts to the dumpster of history? The next time you hear that canard (and you will) pour yourself a single malt and dip into Carmen M. Reinhart and Kenneth S. Rogoff's landmark study, This Time Is Different. Wherever you open the book, you'll find proof that debt-fueled expansions have ended in financial ruin for hundreds of years... The result is a visual history laid out in beguilingly simple graphs and tables, making the book both definitive--a must read for professors and investors--and accessible to a wider audience. -- James Pressley Bloomberg News Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have delivered a powerful and eloquent statement... Reinhart and Rogoff have done an extraordinary job in putting together statistics on government debt--a task that economic historians should have done long ago but shied away from because of the difficulties of defining 'government', which is often complex and multi-layered. -- Harold James The American Interest Unlike prior narrative accounts of market panics from such finance writers as Charles Kindleberger and Edward Chancellor, Reinhart and Rogoff give us a data-driven study that is global in sweep but also a model of clarity. The authors package their notably nonhysterical analysis of the latest crisis in a large, self-contained section of the book inviting harried readers to skip right ahead to it. -- Daniel Akst CNNMoney.com A tour de force of quantitative analysis covering financial crises affecting 66 countries over the past 800 years, the book identifies pre-crisis patterns that recur with eerie consistency. This Time is Different is a must-read for anyone on the lookout for canaries in coal mines. Barron's This is certainly one of the must-read books of the year. -- Arnold Kling Econlog.com Rogoff and Reinhart ... provide an eye-opening look at the cycles of boom and bust and how governments deal with those cycles. Arkansas Business [A] valuable new book. Idaho Statesman Having studied mountains of economic data during the past eight centuries, the authors insightfully point out the highly repetitive nature of financial crises resulted from a dangerous mix of hubris, euphoria and amnesia. Shanghai Daily

《对冲基金风云录2:悲剧英雄》内容简介：前摩根斯坦利全球投资策略师、现对冲基金合伙人巴顿比格斯在《对冲基金风云录2:悲剧英雄》一书中延续了前一本畅销作品《对冲基金风云录》的风格，将虚构与写实的手法巧妙结合，向读者描绘了一个真实而残酷的对冲基金世界。 过去20年，对冲基金就是一场淘金热。像一切泡沫和疯狂一样，它最终也归为泡影，摧毁了很多自大狂、大部分新手，甚至一些实力雄厚的人士。那些在短短几年中积累起来大量财富的对冲基金经理多数都很年轻，在大肆挥霍时毫不犹豫，招来了别人强烈的的仇恨和妒忌。这个故事值得深思之处在于它讲述的胜利和悲剧。 这本书讲述了2007-2009年大牛市中的造富传奇和随后的金融危机，生动描绘了投资管理业务、对冲基金的起起落落，以及金融大恐慌带来的各种灾祸与折磨。然而，归根结底，这是一本关于人，或者说关于投资人士的书。他们的故事能够帮助未来的投资者在因金融事业上的胜利而冲昏头脑、遇到绝望的黑狗，或感到骄傲自满时，懂得更好地应对。